In January 2007 Linda was involved in the birth of Sistaz Open Mic, Pamberi Trust’s special platform for emerging female artists, first as a volunteer, then part-timer, and finally junior project officer for the programme. She worked very hard, handling everything from planning and preparations to advertising and MC, also managing to perform her own poetic pieces, both at Sistaz Open Mic and other events around the city. She was quickly identified as a bright, gifted poet, and invited to perform in South Africa at Johannesburg’s ‘Arts Alive’ festival on 29 September 2007.
She gained entry to the Market Theatre Photo-journalism programme at the beginning of 2008, and has been working flat out in the ‘place of gold’, learning new skills and gaining experience which she looks forward to bringing back home.
This Tuesday, Linda returns to her ‘home ground’ at The Book Café, and will perform with other poets and artists who were also in on the ground floor of Sistaz Open Mic in 2007 and are still going strong – ‘Misfit’, ‘ERS’ Muchemwa, Batsirai Chigama, Primrose Dzenga and Theresa Muchemwa. They will also be joined by young mbira artist Vimbai Zimuto, who emerged as a solo artist at Sistaz Open Mic, participated in Pamberi Trust’s Bocapa Xposure project, and has since gone on to record her debut CD which was launched at The Book Café in July 2008.
As well as a celebration of gifted women, the Tuesday early-evening show will also be a celebration of their progress in performance poetry. From these young women are likely to come celebrated Zimbabwean poets in the years ahead.
Pamberi Trust is an arts organisation which exists to facilitate the arts and runs development programmes for youth, gender, HIV/Aids, and technology funded by Dutch agency HIVOS. Pamberi Trust’s creative director Paul Brickhill, said “If the arts are to be a vital force in the life of the nation, we must accept responsibility to nurture diversity, identify and sustain emerging talent, manage creativity professionally and purposefully build community participation in the arts.”
The Tuesday performances promise to be vibrant and exciting, and with a view to building community participation in the arts, FREE to the Harare public -all welcome!